Take a Nap! Change Your Life.

by Mark Ehrman, Sara C. Mednick

Imagine a product that increases alertness, boosts creativity, reduces stress, improves perception, stamina, motor skills, and accuracy, enhances your sex life, helps you make better decisions, keeps you looking younger, aids in weight loss, reduces the risk of heart attack, elevates your mood, and strengthens memory. Now imagine that this product is nontoxic, has no dangerous side effects, and, best of all, is absolutely free.

This miracle drug is, in fact, nothing more than the the right nap at the right time. The work of Sara C. Mednick, Ph.D., a researcher at the Salk Institute and the leading authority on the study of the nap, Take a Nap! Change Your Life. is the scientifically-based breakthrough program that shows how we can fight the fatigue epidemic—which afflicts an estimated 50 million Americans—through a custom-designed nap. Take a Nap! Change Your Life. explains the five stages of the sleep cycle, particularly Stage Two, Slow Wave Sleep, and REM, and the benefits each one provides; how to assess your tiredness and set up a personal sleep profile; and how to neutralize the voice in your head that tells you napping is a sign of laziness. (Not that anyone would have called JFK, Churchill, Einstein, or Napoleon a slug-a-bed.) Using the unique Nap Wheel on the cover and interior graphs and charts, it shows us exactly when our optimum napping time is, and exactly how long we should try to sleep—even how it’s possible to design a nap to inspire creativity one day, and the next day design one to help us with our memory. There are tips on how to create the right nap environment, a 16-step technique for falling asleep, a six-week napping workbook, and more.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Self Help, Science, Psychology, Lifestyle, Audiobook

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 16, 2006

Reviews

[Lena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want to make the world a better place? Not sure where to begin? Easy, take a nap.

This book goes over the science, the history, and the lore of napping. Without going negative, Take a Nap dismantles grind culture.

A better you, a better world, is just a nap away!

[Tyler Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very informative on the powers of napping. I always kinda hate the fact I can't stay awake and end up taking naps but I shouldn't hate them. They are necessary and so helpful. Seriously, take a nap! It can seriously help you be *more* productive, not less.

[May Ling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: Great book. One of the easiest I have reviewed as relates to sleep. It gets to the point and is not too academic. It offers very specific advice on what to do if you feel like you are sleep deprived and are considering naps. I intend on recommending it and going forth and napping.

6% in - "Learning after a nap is equal to learning after a full night of sleep! Test scores of non-nappers deteriorate across the day!

Pg. 11 - The National Sleep Foundation suggests that 50mm Americans suffer from sleep deprivation. This is called The Walking Tired. I suspect it might be higher.

P. 16-17 They talk about all the health benefits of sleep as relates to heart health, weight management, cancer, mental health, decreased cortisol (it shuts off and HGH is produced)

p. 41 This was interesting as relates to the temperature in your brain during REM sleep. You produced beta waves (similar to being active and awake). You will not awaken unless the temp varies more than 10 degrees away from what is comfortable.

p. 42 - Theta waves move memories from short to long term. This is particularly true for complex stuff. But the higher learning functions need REM to stick to memory. This includes things like spatial orientation (video games), visual learning (bird watching), pattern recognition.

P. 43 - Emotional memories also take REM. REM deprivation is associated with pain sensitivity.

p. 47 - They start to talk about Sleep Pressure. This is a pent up lack of slow-wave sleep. This is what makes you slowly become super sleepy.

41% of the book - Napping does not impact nocturnal sleeping. The key is less than 2 cycles. More than that then yes, it will impact nighttime sleep. It also talks about nap-gorging. I do this when I am jetlagged. Good to know.

Also, a clean break from sleep is more than 2 hours. Otherwise, that is called Waking after sleeping onset (WASO).

Sleeping at night is of better quality than sleeping during the day.

49% of the book - Epsworth Sleepiness Scale. This can tell you what kind of sleep problem you have.

Then the next chapters give great examples. Essentially they all have the same conclusion. Take names especially if you can do it between 1-3. If not, try to do it around 5 pm so as not to interrupt. You'll get more SWS later in the day.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't let the silly promises on the cover fool you--this is a down-to-earth and very useful guide to the benefits of napping and how to make them work for you. Mednick discusses the research on the considerable benefits of napping, details the best times to take naps depending on what kind of boost you need, provides information on the ideal length of naps, and explodes various myths surrounding nap (e.g., taking a nap won't ruin your sleep at night assuming that you nap early enough in the day). I'm generally not a fan of self-help books but greatly appreciated this one. And it's a quick read.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Take a nap. That is basically it.

I found the author incredibly sexist, boring and annoying.

Take a nap at some point most days. Ideally between 1-3pm for up to 90 minutes but it can be as short as 15 minutes and practically any time of day except for 3 hours before your main sleep time.

None of the links in the book continue to work properly and her main website is full of spam posts.

I've just saved you hours of reading the same thing over and over with a load of fluff in-between.

[Brian Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great.

“The ‘big picture’ message is that napping is a necessary and effective tool that can be used by anyone in pursuit of optimum health, happiness and productivity. I want to tell you why that is so, and how to make that knowledge work for you, your family, your company and your community. I want to make you a napper.” ~ Sara C. Mednick from Take a Nap! Change Your Life.

Napping.

I’ve fallen in love with it over the last several years and now I have scientific proof on how awesome it is!

YES!! :)

Seriously.

Naps are incredible.

And, thanks to Sara C. Mednick and her colleagues, we now know that naps are not only enjoyable but they’re scientifically proven to boost our performance and increase our overall health and happiness.

In her great book, Take a Nap! Change Your Life., Sara provides a super fun, quick-reading exploration on the whys and hows of napping. I loved it and I think you will, too.

Below are some of my favorite Big Ideas from this book. You can hear more about this book here:

1. Napping - It’s written in our DNA.
2. Fatigue - The quiet little demon.
3. Warning: Losing Sleep - Is hazardous to your health.
4. 20 Good Reasons to Nap - Let’s count ‘em!
5. Napping + Nighttime Sleep - They go together well.

So, here’s to living with more health, happiness, meaning and mojo as we get our naps on!

I’ve added Take a Nap! Change Your Life. by Sara C. Mednick to my collection of PhilosophersNotes. (Which help you change your life, 20-minutes at a time, with the best Big Ideas from 600+ of the best books on Optimizing your life via 6-page PDFs/20-min MP3s on the go!)

Get instant (free) access to all 600+ PhilosophersNotes AND all 50 Optimal Living 101 classes AND 1,000+ Optimize +1s as part of our free 2-week trial: http://optimize.me/

[Sun · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about naps and why you should take them. Naps don't work for me because I tend to oversleep and wake up groggy and nauseous. That however doesn't take away from the science behind napping, and why it's a brilliant strategy for some. The author of this book, Sara Mednick, is a sleep researcher who promotes her research into napping with customary American confidence and enthusiasm. I, on the other hand, am a curmudgeonly researcher who thinks there ought to be a little discussion the other side of the coin, why naps may be bad for you (as some studies have shown). The best bit of this slim volume is the handy spinning wheel on the front cover - a clever way both to show the concepts behind napping and to individualise when one should nap.

[Wadeeah Alfaraj · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب بسيط بمحتواه واسلوبه، ومعلوماته متداولة بين عامة الناس. يبعدك عن الملل بالقصص القديمة الرومانية المضافة.
واتمنى لو تطبق لدينا فكرة نوادي اخذ القيلولة المذكورة فيه.

معلومة :
""مدة القيلولة من ٥ دقائق الى ٣ ساعات وماعدا ذلك يخرج من مسمى القيلولة.
وافضلها التي تكون من ٢٠ الى ٣٠ دقيقة.""

[Vlad GURDIGA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very similar to the “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker, in format and content, it’s just not about the sleep generally, but the midday sleep, and its benefits, and also useful recipes for making the best of it in special circumstances. Also, enjoyed its message — will make use of it. 🙂

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book on Kindle at night and it never failed to make my eyelids droop—not because it was boring but because it was about sleep. I do believe in napping and have been known to employ a nap to assist me off and on for many years. Now that I’ve retired, I’m finally coming to a point where I don’t feel guilty for an afternoon power nap. If I’d read this earlier I might never have felt that guilt. Need reasons to nap? Positive outcomes of napping? Scientific research to convince you to nap? Read this book. I’m interested in the brain and brain function so this was a great read for me. Going to sleep now!

[Laura Tenfingers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting information about the sleep cycle and all of the health benefits of napping. Unfortunately it was poorly written. There were major info dumps and later we were expected to have retained every detail in order to follow future discussions. Pretty short and worth it anyway.

[Courtney Stoker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this book a much higher rating, but it doesn't have ANY references. Pretty sure if I'm trying to convince my boss to institute a napping policy (something the book encourages you to do), I'm going to need more than just this book as a citation. They're going to want to see I've done my research, which I will have to start from scratch, since this book doesn't even have a references page or anything. I wasn't expecting a full Works Cited; this isn't an academic text. But SOME guidance in doing your own research on sleep would have been appreciated from an author with a PhD.

[ولاء · Rating 5 out of 5]

جميل جداً واكثر من رائع مليء بالمعلومات الجديدة وغير فكري عن القيلولة تماماً

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Viva la nap!

[Manon van Mil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm convinzzzed.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything you need to know about naps

I wish every subject I was interested in had a book like this - tell me everything I want/need to know in 140 pages

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a bit dated (printed in 2006). Mostly this is noticeable in its references to CDs and cassette tapes. But I do wonder whether any of the actual sleep info is also a little stale.

This book hits on many of the same topics as other books on sleep, with additional info about naps.

My high-level takeaways:

1. You can nap without interfering with nighttime sleep.
2. Depending on when you take a nap, you might get more REM sleep (early naps) or slow wave sleep (later naps); the proportion of REM vs SWS can impact how the nap is restorative.

I still wasn't clear at the end of the book whether the author recommends naps for everyone, or only for those who, for whatever reason, aren't able to get enough sleep at night. I'm already very fond of napping, so rereading more carefully wasn't going to change my behaviour. :)

Note that the website mentioned in the book is no longer available. As of May 2022, you can find the nap wheel online at https://www.saramednick.com/napwheel.

[Charles Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has long been happy to have a recuperative dose in the afternoon, this book was a pleasant source of justification. I'm retired now, so finding time to nap is no longer much of a problem (particularly during the Covid lockdown); however, the book has made me think more about making napping a more regular feature of my life.

I confess that when I got to the questionnaire section, it all started to seem like a lot of work. Also, the nap calculator website mentioned in the book seems to have disappeared. Calculating the correct time and length of my naps seems a bit pointless anyway, given that I usually can't just doze off when I want to. I'll stick to trying a 20 - 30 minute nap between 1pm and 3pm, when I feel my concentration draining away.

[Aurelio Guerra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before reading this book, I thought there was not a whole lot to be said on the subject to a general audience... and I was right. A great deal of this book deals with information not related to everyone at every time. I also thought that the information I was about to read was already well-known. I've read some books on sleep and, of course, I have heard the occasional podcast on naps. Here I was wrong. There is a lot of "new" information here even though the book is almost 20 years old (2006). I regularly take naps, now I think I need to explore her findings. Are they still valid? I couldn't find the link to her online content.

[BookBec · Rating 3 out of 5]

So here's my unanswered question: If it takes me 30 minutes to fall asleep for a scheduled 45-minute nap, does that count as a 15-minute nap or a 45-minute nap, and do I end up getting less-than-ideal sleep cycles in my nap?

This book was interesting, encouraging, and easy to read ... a bit too easy, with a big font that came across as more "friendly" than "serious" and a feeling of oversimplification at times. But I did learn that my tendency to oversleep leads to my zombielike post-nap "sleep inertia," so I'll stick to shorter naps and see if they're more helpful.

[Hari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book about the power of naps. It provides specific ideas and action points to get into the habit of napping or even building the habit for the whole company or other people. And that is the strongest point of the book. Otherwise, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams is a much more interesting book about sleep.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some parts were repetitious and useless ( pages of descriptions of masks, earplugs, and gadgets, ending in an admonishment not to spend too much before trying cheaper versions, for example). Skimmable, though, and gave me a good understanding of sleep debt and inertia and how to use timing to make sure naps are useful and don’t leave you groggy.

[☔️ Stormy Day Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book started out interesting and contained a lot of good information but unfortunately I was under the impression it would have more info about polyphasic sleep than a single chapter. I ended up skimming near the end of the book because I truly have no interest in the sleep cycles of different age stages and work-related nap bonuses.

[Paul Bard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Single idea book. Naps are good. You can sell naps at work to your boss: helpful.

The test she writes about is not available online: disappointing! Instead she sells a nap wheel product, which seems unnecessary, honestly.

Key learning: don’t read one idea books.

[Chris Sheridan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take a Nap is an entertaining presentation of research results from Sara Mednick. This book confirmed my anecdotal evidence that napping is good. Mednick provides a game plan for how to nap in the way that benefits you most. I would recommend this book to anyone.

[Marco Villar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great explanation about the benefits of napping, you’ll learn it’s the key to improve your performance, mental clarity and much more.

[Madison MacGregor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. I read it in one sleepless night!

[Phil Lawroski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well Written & Effective

The book provides an intuitive understanding of napping supported by research. It gives you the specifics for a custom designed nap.

[David Bradshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

zzzzz

[cam 🐠🦋🦖 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Take a nap change your life slayedddd 💅🏻💅🏻💅🏻